Lee Meriwether/Coming of Age/Fall 2008/by Kelly Oden

L I F E S T Y L E

M A G A Z I N E

F O R

S E N I O R S

Tech-Savvy Seniors: The Newest Gadgets are Fun and Helpful

How Workaholics Retire

An Exclusive Interview With

Lee Meriwether www.coawfla.org

www.ballingerpublishing.com

Lee Meriwether

By Kelly Oden

Photos courtesy of Lee Meriwether

I

In the 1950s, Lee Meriwether accrued a remarkable collection of titles: Miss San Francisco, Miss California and Miss America. But most people know her as Catwoman in the original Batman movie or as “Betty” in the highly successful CBS series, Barnaby Jones, where she co-starred opposite Buddy Ebsen for eight years, and for which she was nominated for both the Golden Globe and the Emmy. Lee Meriwether has also had starring or recurring roles in a variety of television series, such as the original Today Show on NBC and her three year run as Lily on The Munsters Today for Universal.

Live theatre, however, continues to be her first love.

She has had a long and fruitful association with Theatre

West, a professional actors’ workshop in Hollywood. At Theatre West, Lee has appeared in a number of great performances, including Spoon River Anthology with Betty Garrett, Aesop in Central Park with Richard Dreyfuss and Ladies of Hanover Towers with Carroll O’Connor.

Lee cherishes her family as well. Her husband, Marshall B. Borden is an actor and writer, and she has worked with her two daughters, Kyle and Lesley Aletter.

COA talked with Lee Meriwether about her life’s journey—professionally and personally—and some of the amazing people she has met along the way.

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can remember. The rest of it I see third person. I see it in front of me actually experiencing it.

COA: What did being Miss America mean to you at the time? And, since being crowned Miss America, has your idea of beauty evolved? Has it changed? And if so, how?

LM: Well, I never really thought of it as beauty pageant.

Mainly because they stressed over and over and over that there was never a ballot for beauty. I didn’t enter it. I was entered by a fraternity of City College in San Francisco. ...And when I won, it was a bizarre feeling...I couldn’t believe it because I never thought of myself as beautiful.

And, I know that my husband always says ‘stop being so generous. You’ve got to know how you look.’ And I’d say, ‘You don’t realize that I see myself as a young kid—gawky, gangly, funny looking.’ But he’d say ‘Can’t you see, look at your childhood pictures?’ And I’d say, ‘No, look at the ears.

Look at the bony knees. Look at the awkward way I’m standing.’ So it’s just one of those things. It’s just one of those problems that I have to get over.

COA: Hi Lee, I just wanted to start with some basic questions about growing up in California. What that was like for you?

LM: Well, let’s see. I was born in Los Angeles, but I moved away to Phoenix when I was three. Then, when I was 12, I moved to San Francisco.

COA: Did becoming Miss America help to propel you into your roles in Hollywood? Did that give you an advantage?

LM: Oh absolutely. Well not an advantage, but it did put me into a situation. I was interviewed as Miss America on the Today Show, then a half a year later, they called me and asked me if I would be interested in being a regular on the Today Show. They only had three men on the show and a variety of women who filled in for various things. And they wanted one woman to do everything— fashion shows, weather features, entertainment, all of that stuff. That’s what I did. And I said ‘yes, of course,’ but I said ‘I can’t do it now. I’m touring across the country.’ Well they said

COA: Do you think that the California lifestyle was a big influence on you growing up?

LM: I somehow doubt it. Well, I don’t know what a California lifestyle is anymore. And I don’t think that anyone has ever said, ‘Hey your lifestyle is really something.’ We were a terrific family, my brother and I and my mother and father. We lost my father when I was 18 and he was only 48. And it was right around the time after I had won Miss California.

COA: So he was able to see some of your success?

LM: Oh yes, oh yes. He was looking forward to going to Atlantic City (for the Miss America Pageant) and I firmly believe that he was there as a wandering spirit because that is how I justified winning. The judges had to have ruled by his pushing.

COA: Let’s talk about Miss America. It must have been an amazing feeling when you were crowned.

LM: When it happened, when they put the pageant banner across my lap, I really thought that they meant for me to give it to Anne Daniels, who was Miss Florida, because I picked Anne to win. I thought she was going to win, and then I hear them say, ‘No, that’s yours dear.’ And that’s all I FALL 2008

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‘When you’re through,’ and I said ‘Can I have a month off?

I’m very tired.’ And they were very nice and gracious, and they said yes. And I became the first women they ever put on the air.

COA: Would you ever encourage young women now to enter the pageant?

LM: Absolutely. Now just make sure that it’s a pageant aimed toward the Miss America pageant, not some of the other pageants that are around. As long as they offer some of the scholarships, then I say yes, go for it because some of the girls that have won it have been able to put themselves completely through college. They’ve been able to finish their education simply by entering in a local or state pageant. It’s an easy scholarship when you look at it that way.

COA: Let’s get into Batman.

I know there is an interesting story about you getting the part of Catwoman. Do you want to tell our readers about that?

LM: Well, I was called in to audition. This was for the movie; I had yet to see Julie Newmar do the series or the episodes. It may be apparent that I had never seen them.

And I walked into the outside office at 20th Century Fox, and I saw all of these women—beautiful, gothic women—and I thought, ‘oh, good grief.

Forget it.’ Well, I said to myself, ‘You’re here, and you’ve got your audition. Do something that they will remember.’ So when I walked in, I pitched my voice up a little higher than normal—like an airhead almost. And I sat down in the chair and curled up in it. They gave me a nice big armchair so I was able to curl up in it and I started licking my hand—my paw—and I started pretending to be a cat. And I lowered my voice when I thought it was an evil part and it worked.

Within a day I was in costuming, and the following day I was on the set.

COA: I know that you have a book coming out, right? It is a tell-all, sort of behind the scenes of these experiences, am I correct?

LM: I don’t know if you would call it a tell-all, because there wasn’t much to tell. It was really a fun thing. I really did it for my daughter. My husband was always after me to write it down—to write these stories that I have. And I said, ‘oh, yes I will.‘ So I would write it down occasionally.

A little note here and there. And finally he said ‘I’m gonna

stop asking you. Just do this for me. Think about your granddaughter, now that you have one. You have a granddaughter, leave her a legacy.’ And that did it. That’s what started it seriously.... A young man has been helping me—taking my stories and turning them into a book. It’s really worked nicely. We’re just about finished and we’re on our last chapter now. Now it’s time to find a publisher.

COA: Do you have a working title?

LM: The working title is Oh I’m Sorry Lee, You Are Just Too Pretty. And underneath, in parenthesis is To Play Mrs. Lincoln.

COA: Well, do you have more tidbits or anecdotes to give to readers that you are going to be writing about, to give them a little bit of a taste of it?

LM: About Buddy Ebsen and teaching me to tap dance. He tried desperately.

Of course he never realized that I did it on purpose— that I couldn’t dance, that I couldn’t tap dance—because he would keep working with me. He said, ‘Lee I’m glad that you never went into a serious career in dancing.

Your attention is not very good.’ I’d say, ‘Please show me again.’ So we would work on it. And he would show me how, and I would pretend to work on it. And I would say ‘just the last part.’

So, I was being taught by Buddy Ebsen. That’s about as racy as it gets.

COA: I did want to talk a little about Buddy Ebsen, but to finish up with the Batman questions, have you seen the recent Batman movies?

LM: Yes I have. Well, they’re not for children as ours were.

Ours were kid friendly. Batman was—talking about the Dark Knight—he was the Bright Knight. Our Batman was fun and games, cute and funny, and laughable. Really, it was a fun, family film. But I hear at least the Dark Knight is a really good thriller. I’m looking forward to seeing that. I liked the others for their performances. But the story lines were just too heavy for me. I wasn’t prepared for them. I was saddened by them. I really was, because I loved the fun and games we had.

COA: Well, the sixties Batman movie had a campy quality to it. Is that something that has been attributed to it more recently or were you conscious of that quality when you filmed it?

LM: Oh yes, definitely. It was farce. Any actor then could tell you that farce is the hardest acting they know, because FALL 2008

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you have to be so devoted to what you are doing, that you can’t wink at it. Can’t wink ever. You really have to be focused. I admire Adam West, really all of them, they were wonderful actors, but Adam has never really been given credit—not the credit I think he deserves. Because he went along that tight rope of a line and one false step and it would have been disaster. So it was believable if he fell. He believed that he was this caped crusader, and he was proud of it. And that is so hard when it really is so practical. At first, you really have to keep at it. And I believe he was wonderful. Absolutely brilliant.

COA: After being Miss America and then Catwoman, was it difficult to break out of the beautiful, sexy stereotype?

LM: It was difficult to get some of the roles because some times the Miss America role would pop up and people didn’t imagine that a former Miss America could act the way that other people act. I actually had a producer say that to me almost. A casting director did. And he was only saying that because his producer was saying to him, ‘Will you just get her agent off my back.’ So he said ‘Let her read. Let her read.’ Then I read, and he said ‘You’re good.’ I’ve had a lot of that—a lot of that. Where people will lose their front, that persona of I am casting this movie and they will just say ‘Oh, wow, you’re really good.’ I’ve had that a couple of times. I really have. And, I’ve lost parts because of the line ‘I’m sorry Lee, it’s just that you’re too pretty.’ I’ve had that. And that was always so incongruous to me because for so long I grew up without hearing, “you’re really beautiful, Lee; you’re really pretty, Lee.” No, I saw what was in the mirror and I knew what I looked like and it didn’t translate to being beautiful like in a movie. It was hurtful and I thought they were making it up. Whenever they said that, I thought it was a nice thing to say instead of saying, ‘Wow you really are a lousy actress; you can’t play this part.’

COA: So you thought it was an excuse?

LM: Exactly.

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COA: You were nominated for a Golden Globe and an Emmy for Barnaby Jones, right?

LM: Yes I was. I was thrilled to death. You hope for those things in life to happen and you think they never will. But by darn it, it did.

COA: Everybody loves Buddy Ebsen, and I know that you developed a very deep friendship with him.

LM: Very special. Very special. I love that man. I miss him desperately. It was very sad. I know he had a wonderful life and good career but, oh dear, I do miss him. He was a dear, dear soul. He had just a lovely quality. And his audiences loved him.

And they followed him. CBS kept moving our show each year. We were on for eight years, and each year they put us on another night. And his audiences would start to find him and the numbers would start to build again. It was amazing. The audiences just adored him.

COA: You’ve done a good deal of stage work and you’re doing some stage work now. What production are you working on?

LM: I’m getting ready to do Long Day’s Journey into Night.

COA: Do you prefer stage to film or television? Either one? Being in front of a camera or being in front of a live audience.

LM: Live audience wins hands down. I love the theatre.

COA: What causes are important to you?

LM: I do memorabilia shows all the time for Ability First, which is a crippled children’s society of Southern California. The Blind Children’s Center here in Los Angeles. And Theatre West’s Storybook Theatre, I donate to that quite a bit because we help schools from outside of the area, so they can come to our shows.

COA: There is such an emphasis on anti-aging right now, but your hair is its natural color. You let it go gray without dying it. How do you feel about aging, and what is your secret to aging gracefully?

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LM: Oh, bless your heart, thank you.

Nice complements. The gray hair, I knew that I had gray hair in my 20s, but I didn’t know how much. In my 60s, I wondered if I should think about going gray, and even All My Children will not let me go gray. I have to wear a red wig. I know that it’s everywhere. People go nuts with the Botox. Luckily, I have good genes.

My mother was almost wrinkle free when she passed away at 94. I’ve been lucky, I’ve just been taking care of my skin. Making sure it’s moisturized; I put on sunscreen now all the time.

COA: You’ve worked with some pretty incredible leading men—John Wayne, Adam West, Rock Hudson, Burt Ward, Buddy Ebsen—some of the big stars of their time. I wanted to know if you had a favorite?

LM: I’ve been so incredibly lucky that I have not acted with a lemon— not once. They’ve all been wonderfully supportive, wonderfully sexy—I think Buddy Ebsen is sexy.

They’re all nice men, nice gentlemen, and professional—all of them. Not one was a flake, not one was temperamental. I really have been incredibly lucky. You can’t choose the best—there is no way. I just can’t. I just love them all. Of course in terms of a length of time of working with someone, well Buddy Ebsen stands out there because I had eight years with that lovely man. I spent more time with him than anyone else. But good heavens, I got to do interpretive dancing with Rock Hudson! I just count myself so lucky.

COA: We always like to know whether or not our interview subjects have visited the Gulf Coast or the Pensacola Area. Have you?

LM: Yes, actually my husband and I once out-drove a hurricane! We were visiting friends and here comes the hurricane and we had to leave. That was fun.

COA: That sounds like an adventure!

Well Lee, thank you so much for talking with me today. I really enjoyed it and I’m sure our readers will enjoy our conversation as well.

LM: You’re very welcome and thank you.

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